Voters in the city of Richmond, Virginia have rejected a ballot measure to build a new casino in the city.
The city held a referendum, as part of the November 2 election, to approve the building of One Casino + Resort in the south side of the city.
In total, 37,599 people – 48.6% of voters – voted to approve the casino resort.
However, 39,824 voters – 51.4% – voted against, meaning the ballot measure was defeated.
Steps to build a casino in Richmond started with the passage of a bill to expand gaming in the state of Virginia, through five land-based casinos and legal sports betting.
Richmond’s city council then selected One Casino + Resort – a $562.5m project from Maryland-based media business Urban One – as the preferred operator for the casino after One beat out operators including Bally’s Corporation and Live! Casino & Hotel from the Cordish Companies in the bidding process.
Elsewhere in the US, a ballot measure in New Jersey which would have allowed New Jersey bettors to place wagers on games including in-state collegiate sports teams was also defeated.
There were 825,707 votes in favor of the measure, but 1.1 million against, meaning the vote was defeated by a margin of 56.8% to 43.2%.